Skip to main content

First semi-finals - my money is on West Indies

By


West Indies takes on Sri Lanka in the first semi-finals to be played in Dhaka on Thursday.  This promises to be an absolute cracker – both are champion sides with serious talent. 

Sri Lanka is all about the mystery bowling.   When they fire, they fire really well.  They have bowled out Netherlands for 39 and New Zealand for 60.  In the other two games, they have conceded 160 to South Africa and 190 to England.   Malinga has not been in top form while the others – Herath, Mendis, Kulasekara, Mathews have all bowled reasonably well.  Their batting has been adequate without being threatening.  There has been one good knock from Jayawardene and decent outings for Kushal Perera, Dilshan and Angelo Mathews.  Overall Sri Lanka has been inconsistent and, one feels, not been stretched too much in the tournament.

West Indies on the other hand have reached the semi-finals with hard fought wins.  They struggled big time against India and looked listless in all aspects of the game.  Credit to them – they recovered quickly.  They were solid against Bangladesh.  They pulled off a stunning win against Australia in probably the match of the tournament so far – with superb batting performances from Gayle, Bravo & Sammy.  In the must-win final match against Pakistan, they were tottering at 86 for 5 after 15 overs.  Bravo and Sammy stunned the Pakistan bowling with a brutal 82 runs from the last 5 overs.  And then the Pakistan batsmen were all at sea against the varied bowling attack of West Indies.  This team is battle hardened and all their players are putting their hand up to be counted.

The West Indies seem to be peaking at the right time – their lower order batting is exceptional and their bowling is very good.  If they get help from Gayle and Smith at the top – this team will be hard to beat.  Sri Lanka on the other hand have to play really well in all aspects in order to beat the Windies.  If their trump card – spin bowling – fires, they will have a much better chance of winning. 


My money is on the Caribbeans.
Reactions:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Key Players: India - England

By
When there is nothing left, you will play for pride. That is what India has to do tomorrow. Considering the fact that the match is taking place in Mumbai. Do it for them. Do it for us.  England and Australia will meet each other at the finals on 31st March. India and England are more than likely to go in with the same playing eleven.
India Terribly low on morale, the team will now have to give it their all. They need to know that they are much better than this.
Key players Smriti Mandhana H Kaur Jhulan Goswami J Rodrigues Pooja Vastrakar
England The team has been doing really well since day one. They will now consider this as a practice match. But they will want to win and go to the finals with confidence. They were thumped by Australia earlier in what can be called as a one-sided game. They want to win this tomorrow.
Key Players Danielle Wyatt Nat Sciver Jenny Gunn Tammy B Tash Farrant
Indu

Post a Comment
Read more

Editor’s Pick (PKL)

By
The first match - UP - Bengaluru

UP Yoddha - Squad strength: 18 (16 Indian, 2 Overseas) Defenders – Jeeva Kumar, Hadi Tajik, Nitesh Kumar, Gurvinder Singh, Santosh BS, Rohit Kumar, Sanoj Kumar Raiders – Rishank Devadiga, Sulieman Kabir, Nitin Tomar, Surendra Singh, Mahesh Goud, Ajvender Singh, Gulveer Singh All Rounders – Rajesh Narwal, Pankaj, Sunil, Sagar B Krishna Bengaluru Bulls - Squad strength: 18 (16 Indian, 2 Overseas) Defenders –  Ravinder Pahal, Sachin Kumar, Navjot Singh, Pradeep Narwal, Kuldeep Singh, Mahender Singh Raiders – Rohit Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Sumit Singh, Harish Naik, Sinotharan Kanesharajah, Gurvinder Singh, Rohit, Sunil Jaipal All Rounders – Sanjay Shrestha, Ashish Kumar, Ankit Sangwan, Amit, Preetam Chhillar

My Lineup AR: Pankaj DF: Ravinder Pahal , Mahender Singh RA: Ajay Kumar, Nitin Tomar, Rishank Devadiga, Rohit Kumar

The points of some players go right through the roof. Nitin Tomar with a score of 654 and Rohit Kumar with 1018. I have seen Rohit Kumar play. He is r…
Post a Comment
Read more

Editor’s Pick (Nidahas T20): India - Sri Lanka

By
The table is currently in a very surprising situation. Most expected Sri Lanka to show Bangladesh the door. But here they are still standing up and shining. The tournament is wide open. Today’s match is between India and Sri Lanka. The stakes are much higher now that Bangladesh is more feared than before. The teams would not want to risk anything at this point. Earlier I had said that they might experiment with the lineup and give everyone a chance. Now it will be more than giving people a chance. They will strategize. The Indian team will be open to experimentation, but not at the cost of results.

The untested ones are Deepak Hooda, KL Rahul, and Axar Patel. India has lost to Sri Lanka in their first encounter of this tournament. They will want to be wary because another defeat could cost them the tournament itself. So, not all the new players will see the light today.
A lot depends on Rohit Sharma today. Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey and Dinesh Karthik will chip in too.…
Post a Comment
Read more